Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Facebook apologized to drag queens on Wednesday following a meeting with community members and queens who protested against the company’s order to use their legal names on the social networking site.

Facebook’s chief product officer, Chris Cox, said: “I want to apologise to the affected community of drag queens, drag kings, transgender, and extensive community of our friends, neighbours, and members of the LGBT community for the hardship that we’ve put you through in dealing with your Facebook accounts over the past few weeks.”

“The spirit of our policy is that everyone on Facebook uses the authentic name they use in real life. For Sister Roma, that’s Sister Roma. For Lil Miss Hot Mess, that’s Lil Miss Hot Mess,” said Cox. “Part of what’s been so difficult about this conversation is that we support both of these individuals, and so many others affected by this, completely and utterly in how they use Facebook.”

Just a brief note to inform you that I have been blocked from Facebook. They claim that Msgr. Charles Pope is not my real name and are requiring me to submit government ID proving that Msgr. Charles Pope is my true identity. As of now, I have no intention of doing this since I consider it an unreasonable demand by them. They further indicate that even if I supply the IDs from at least two sources, that they reserve the right not to reactivate my account if the name I have used does not meet their preferences.

They explain the reason for their action as:

We ask everyone on Facebook to use the name they go by in everyday life so friends know who they’re connecting with

But of course this IS the name that I go by “in everyday life.” Further, I have had a Facebook account under the name of “Msgr. Charles Pope” for over 6 years now. This is my name, this is who I am. I have 5,000 friends on Facebook who know me by this.

Facebook of course is a private company and they can do whatever they want and treat their clients and users in whatever foul ways they wish. But my current stance on this matter is to resist their demand and seek to share my dissatisfaction.

Facebook was once an open forum to discuss and share. It has become increasingly autocratic and ideological. It may be time for many of us to encourage them to reform or to simply leave Facebook.

I respect that some of you may differ with my assessment of things, but I did want to explain my sudden absence from Facebook and I request your help in spread this information with others you think might wonder as to my disappearance from that forum.

My Twitter Feed is @MsgrPope

I'm sure this has nothing to do with religion, particularly the Catholic religion.

Friday, July 24, 2015

Maybe the undercover investigation conducted by the Center for Medical Progress needed to happen so people could see and hear the gruesomeness of Planned Parenthood’s harvesting and sale of fetal body parts. Maybe it was too easy to ignore without video-taped evidence in plain, gory language. Maybe it is not enough to be outraged at abortion on its face because, I don’t know, killing is somehow worse if body parts are sold.

But anyone who has followed scientific research on the Human Genome Project, cloning, genetic, evolution, and stem cell research knows that the use of fetal and embryonic body parts and tissues is nothing new. I am not complimenting myself for knowing about this. I have been interested in reading science papers for decades. Now I am urging more people to pay more attention because, while I remain unsure how to stop the horrific conduct in some areas of the scientific community, there is no doubt that information is a fundamental necessity. You cannot change what you do not know about.

Here, let me show you. This is how the information is presented in scientific literature.

Let’s say you woke up a few days ago, poured the dark coffee your husband made you, and sat down with your laptop to read your weekly subscription to Science journal. (Yes, I subscribe, and I struggle with that, but I do not know any other way to keep up with the weekly papers.) The July 3 issue had a News Feature, “Of Mice and Men: Researchers are adding human DNA to mice to pinpoint sequences that helped define our species.” The image bore two mouse embryos with blue brains. There is no jargonhere in this title shrouding what is going on. Researchers have to get human DNA from someone to be able to add it to mice embryos and grow them. Where do you think the human DNA to add to mouse embryos comes from?

...

Doing scientific lab work is much like cooking. The Materials and Methods sections, which all full scientific papers have, are kind of like cookbooks. They have the recipes for making the stuff. There is often not enough room to detail all the steps in a full paper, so sometimes the rest of the story is given in Supplemental Materials. Science journal puts those in a separate document. The link is found at the end of the paper. Here it is, and you have to download the Materials and Methods to read them. Right at the top, there is the paragraph. Go ahead. Read it all.

Human tissue. Human fetal brain tissue was obtained from the Klinik und Poliklinik für Frauenheilkunde und Geburtshilfe, Universitätsklinikum Carl Gustav Carus of the Technische Universität Dresden, following elective pregnancy termination and informed written maternal consents, and with approval of the local University Hospital Ethical Review Committees. The age of fetuses ranged from 12 to 13 wpc (12 wpc, n = 1; 13 wpc, n = 2) as assessed by ultrasound measurements of crown-rump length and other standard criteria of developmental stage determination. Human fetuses were placed on ice immediately after abortion and neocortices were dissected in ice-cold Tyrode’s Solution (TS) and either processed for DiI labeling or fixed for at least 3 h at room temperature followed by 24 h at 4°C in 4% PFA in 120 mM phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). The 16 wpc human brain used for immunofluorescence analyses (shown in Fig. S8) was obtained from Novogenix Laboratories (Torrance, CA), following informed consent and elective termination. Developmental age was determined by ultrasound.

Catch that? Novogenix Laboratories in CA is the company who comes to Planned Parenthood, signs the patients up, and collects the tissues to sell to researchers. They are mentioned in the Center for Medical Progress video.

She's got tons more... and it should be required reading. It should also make you want to throw up.

There are Frankensteinian things going on in labs around the world and we're all supposed to apparently accept that because it's considered science, it's ok, because it's being done in the name of medical research, it's ok, because this is what the left sees to be progress, it's ok.

It's not ok.

It's evil. It's nothing more than a rekindling of the worship of Moloch and Mammon.

I watched the video put out with your face on it. I heard you talking about harvesting fetal body parts. I saw you sip your wine while talking about how to remove an intact fetus.

I want you to know that I’m not disgusted by you. I’m not disgusted, because I used to be just like you. You see, my former Planned Parenthood clinic used to harvest fetal body parts. I used to sift through their bodies and prepare them for transport to the research lab we were contracted with.

The other day, I learned a new thing that I hate because of my work at the clinic. Dry ice. We used to participate in studies where we would have to collect fetal body parts and ship them to research labs...all for stem cell research. We kept their little bodies cold and preserved by using dry ice. My daughter was really excited to put water on it so she could see the smoke. I stood there and couldn't get the memories of those little bodies out of my mind. My kids were squealing with excitement and I felt like I couldn't move. I had to make a decision in that moment. I could either let my past consume me, or I could repurpose that memory and use it for good. And that’s what I chose to do. I sat down next to the block of ice and watched my kids run around in the smoke.

But that dry ice did cause me to recall that particular part of my work. All of the blood, body parts and extra tissue would be collected into a glass jar. That glass jar would come to me in the POC (products of conception) lab through a “pass through specimen cabinet.” I would take the jar to our sink, dump everything into a huge strainer, rinse out the jar and then rinse the blood out of the strainer. After I had a clean body, I would dump it into the glass baking dish that was sitting on top of an x-ray light box. I would put a little bit of water in the glass dish so that the body parts would float…that made it easier for me to manipulate them.

During the season of tissue harvesting, an intact body was gold. An intact fetal body is considered perfection in the land of fetal tissue research. But dismembered body parts were okay, too…and that is usually what we gave them. I would check the patient’s chart to make sure that they had signed the consent for us to donate their baby’s remains. Almost every woman did, because we made it seem like that by donating, they were helping others…altruism during abortion. If she had consented, then I would gather the parts wanted (usually all of them) and place them in a particular container given to us by the research company. At the end of the day, I would pack all of the containers neatly in the box with dry ice and ship them off.

That was my life, and I did it for eight years. The images of tiny bodies will always be burned in my memory. And in a strange way, I am thankful for that memory as it reminds me what I’m fighting for.

As I watched you on the video, I could almost see myself. After a grueling abortion day, we would all go out for margaritas and Mexican food. We would talk about the day and specific abortion cases. It wasn’t gross to us. We honestly didn’t think anything about it. We would plainly talk about harvesting fetal parts as if we were talking about harvesting a field of corn. That was our normal…and we were proud to live in it. I get the humor. I get how something grotesque to others can seem ordinary.

I understand the world you live in. I understand the blindness. I don’t think you are an evil person. I wasn’t an evil person. But just like I was, you are gravely misguided.

There's more and it ends with a direct pitch for Nucatola to leave her "gravely misguided" life.

The bigger challenge of course is appealing to the gravely misguided who continue to defend Planned Parenthood, who see no problem with what they're doing, who in fact openly support and even ask God to bless their work.

Gravely misguided is being charitable to these people.

God have mercy on them... because I'm having a terrible time mustering up any desire for mercy and I realize that is wrong.

Yes, God have mercy on them, and God have mercy on all of us that have tolerated this kind of butchery for far too long.

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

There's a lot of talk today about hatred. About symbols and acts of hatred. About how we must remove any and all vestiges of hatred to right the wrong that this hatred represents. About how we must penalize and punish those who engage in acts of hatred and award monetarily those who are victimized by the haters. About how this hatred is evil and wholly so.

And for that reason, most providers will do this case under ultrasound guidance, so they’ll know where they’re putting their forceps. The kind of rate-limiting step of the procedure is the calvarium, the head is basically the biggest part. Most of the other stuff can come out intact. It’s very rare to have a patient that doesn’t have enough dilation to evacuate all the other parts intact.

The actors posing as buyers met with Nucatola over a series of meetings, and recorded their conversation.

...

In one conversation, Nucatola explains that, in the morning, she looks at her list of patients and decides which organs and other body parts she can harvest from which patients:

I had 8 cases yesterday. And I knew exactly what we needed, and I kinda looked at the list and said okay, this 17-weeker has 8 lams, and this one—so I knew which were the cases that were probably more likely to yield what we needed, and I made my decisions according to that too, so it’s worth having a huddle at the beginning of the day, and that’s what I do.

"Lams" are laminaria, the seaweed sticks inserted into a patient's body to induce or prepare for an abortion. They absorb moisture and widen, dilating the cervix to aid extraction of a fetus and scraping of the uterus. There is, according to Nucatola, no consensus on what is the proper number of laminaria to use. She says,

As far as medicine goes, this, for a very long time has been a data-free zone.

Once the patient's cervix is dilated enough to extract the child's body, it's simply a matter of making careful choices of where to apply the grasping, tearing, and crushing tools that bring the child out in as few pieces as possible. It helps to know which organs you are hoping to retrieve, Nucatola explains:

So then you’re just kind of cognizant of where you put your graspers, you try to intentionally go above and below the thorax, so that, you know, we’ve been very good at getting heart, lung, liver, because we know that, so I’m not gonna crush that part, I’m going to basically crush below, I’m gonna crush above, and I’m gonna see if I can get it all intact. And with the calvarium [head], in general, some people will actually try to change the presentation so that it’s not vertex, because when it’s vertex presentation, you never have enough dilation at the beginning of the case, unless you have real, huge amount of dilation to deliver an intact calvarium.

If a buyer is in the market for fetal heads (calvaria), Nucatola explains that a breech delivery makes it easier to retrieve the child's head whole, so you should try to manipulate the fetus so as to extract his feet first:

So if you do it starting from the breech presentation, there’s dilation that happens as the case goes on, and often, the last, you can evacuate an intact calvarium at the end. So I mean there are certainly steps that can be taken to try to ensure—

Buyer: So they can convert to breach, for example, at the start of the—

Exactly, exactly. Under ultrasound guidance, they can just change the presentation.

The market for fetal parts is still in flux, Nucatola notes, and it makes sense to do your research ahead of time and figure out which specimens are in demand...

The last nail in the coffin of Objective Truth comes to us via the story of NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who is “trans-raced”. As such, she demands to be counted among the truly marginalized and victimized, and if that means helping things along, well, that might be alright, too:

“One’s racial identity is not a qualifying criteria or disqualifying standard for NAACP leadership.”Dolezal came under scrutiny earlier this week when Spokane police raised questions about her claims of receiving threatening hate mail.Dolezal’s parents are both white and said their daughter has publicly claimed that her adopted black brother is her own son.The NAACP head told cops she found an envelope in the chapter’s post office box containing 20 pages of notes, including pictures of lynchings and the term “war pig.”But a police investigation revealed the envelope was never canceled or timestamped, and was placed in a box accessible only to postal workers — or someone with a key.

We are living in transient times.

The most interesting and ironic thing about the End of Objective Truth is that it has been brought about (and celebrated) largely by people who have proudly, for some decades, eschewed the idea of faith and “bronze age oogedy boogedy”, for the world of hard facts and science. Often they will tell you that they do not believe in God because they live in a world buttressed by the (Catholic-invented) Scientific Method, and full of measurable, verifiable and quantitative data.

Now, it seems, Science is to be thrown into the dumpster, along with God.

Do read the whole thing. Please. Ms. Scalia has a way with cutting through all the clutter and she does so here beautifully.

G. K. Chesterton was prescient about this:

In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox. There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, “I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.” To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: “If you don’t see the use of it, I certainly won’t let you clear it away. Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me that you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.

The fences and gates maintaining good social order are being destroyed in the name of progress and reform. We are paying a price and will soon pay a steeper one for this.

"The threat of a changing climate cuts to the very core of your service," Obama told the 224 graduating cadets, who studied the impacts of global warming as part of their curriculum.

"It will affect everything that you do in your careers," Obama added, noting that sea levels were expected to rise by 1 to 4 feet (30-120 cm) in the coming century.

...

"Around the world, climate change increases the risk of instability and conflict," he said. "Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country. So we need to act, and we need to act now."

"Denying it or refusing to deal with it endangers our national security," he added. "It undermines the readiness of our forces."

I don't know how else to say this folks... I really don't... so pardon the bluntness but...

We're in serious shit with this President at the helm and with the idiots that are feeding him this sort of garbage.

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

That from Deacon Greg Kandra, reacting to ABC's new Catholic bashing TV show slated to premiere in the fall. He's got a trailer up that I find disgusting and far from funny.

That this kind of garbage is allowed to air on a major network, particularly one owned by Disney, speaks volumes to how low the culture has sunk. But we can't be surprised given who the show's executive producer is.

"The most incredibly vicious anti-Catholic in America is Dan Savage. What he has said about Catholicism is so vile that Disney would never air it. To offer this malicious bigot a show is the height of irresponsibility."- Bill Donohue, President, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights

“Unfortunately, Dan Savage's public persona is completely opposite to wholesome role model for kids. His crass and even vitriolic disparaging of certain faiths and family values, and his aggressive agenda of promoting dangerous, deviant sexual experimentation couldn't have escaped Disney's or ABC's attention. To see the network that brought us Cinderella endorse a man like this should outrage every American who cares about our children and our culture.”- Lila Rose, President, Live Action

"Dan Savage recently made a lewd smear against Pope John Paul II on Twitter in which he accused him of being a child molester. This is sadly typical of Dan Savage, who has a history of making X-rated personal attacks. Why would Disney hire this man for one of their TV shows? And why would advertisers want to be associated with such vile attacks on Catholics?"- Brian Burch, President, CatholicVote.org

"These thugs will 'savage' Catholics for their religious beliefs, and then put on fundraisers to advocate tolerance for any other minority. This hits a new low for an industry that has sunk to the depths of depravity and religious hatred. The two halves of the First Amendment fit together. Those who claim free speech for the news and entertainment media, yet freely discriminate against Catholics, forget that there is no authentic free speech if there is no freedom of religion. The First Amendment will not stand in a society that has no respect for its citizens' religious beliefs."- Patrick J. Reilly, President, The Cardinal Newman Society

"Dan Savage has said some of the most vile and disgusting things about Christians that have ever been heard in America. He has publicly encouraged sexual violence against them and said they were deserving of death by torture. The fact that ABC would voluntarily work with such an extreme person to promote his immoral, hateful agenda is problematic in the extreme."- John-Henry Westen, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief, LifeSiteNews

"Dan Savage is called a pro-gay activist but what I know of him is that he is against just about everything, including the family. Disney will likely feel its decision to base a show on his life where it hurts the most - in its deep pockets."- Father Frank Pavone, President, Priests for Life

“Dan Savage’s hatred for those with whom he disagrees is a matter of public record, as are his many vile taunts and fantasies. If ABC does give him a platform from which to further spread his venom, then let this be the end of the claim that ‘neutral’ media such as ABC just want to promote tolerance. Anti-Christian bigotry is absolutely alright with ABC, so let’s do away with the pretense that this is just about entertainment.”- Stephen Phelan, Director of Mission Communications, Human Life International

"The idea that the vulgar, insulting, outrageous Dan Savage would rate consideration for a sitcom on ABC Disney only confirms the obvious fact that, culturally, our nation is in a moral free fall. What other reason could there be for partnering with a man who has spent much of his adult life insulting God, His followers, and His Church? How low will society go before courageous Americans stand up and say enough? The time is now to raise our voices. Join us in opposing this most recent embrace of media bigotry that has no place in a civilized nation."- Judie Brown, President, American Life League Inc.

“Disney sold out years ago, but to produce a show based on the life of a radical bigot like Dan Savage is a slap in the face to Catholics across the country. The Lepanto Institute is more than happy to join in the campaign against this program. Anti-Family propaganda like this must never see the light of day.”- Michael Hichborn, President, Lepanto Institute

In Missouri, women seeking an abortion at the one open abortion-providing clinic in the state have to make two trips to the clinic, 72 hours apart: The first is to receive counseling that “includes information designed to discourage her from having an abortion,” the Guttmacher Institure says, and the second after the required waiting period is for the procedure.

The Satanic Temple says that the restriction places an undue burden of one Missouri member, identified by the group only under the pseudonym of “Mary.” Late last week, the national group and the local Missouri chapter of the Temple were raising funds for potential legal costs, as well as meals, transportation and day-care costs for “Mary’s” child, according to a video posted by St. Louis Satanic Temple head Damien Ba’al.

The Riverfront Times spoke to “Mary,” who did not use her real name in the interview. She’s a 22-year-old mechanic who lives four hours away from the state’s Planned Parenthood clinic in St. Louis:

“I personally would have liked to have the procedure done as soon as possible,” says Mary, who’s nearly 12 weeks pregnant. “But with all the difficulties, how hard it is do this, it’s been put off for several weeks. If you’re right on the edge of the state you’ve got to go 500 miles just to get to St. Louis, and you have to make arrangements.”

As an adherent to the principles of the Satanic Temple, my sincerely held religious beliefs are:

My body is inviolable and subject to my will alone.

I make any decision regarding my health based on the best scientific understanding of the world, even if the science does not comport with the religious or political beliefs of others.

My inviolable body includes any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry so long as that tissue is unable to survive outside my body as an independent human being.

I, and I alone, decide whether my inviolable body remains pregnant and I may, in good conscience, disregard the current or future condition of any fetal or embryonic tissue I carry in making that decision.

I regard any information required by state statute to be communicated or offered to me as aprecondition for an abortion (separate and apart from any other medical procedure) to be based onpolitics and not science ("Political Information"). I regard Political Information as a state sanctionedattempt to discourage abortion by compelling my consideration of the current and future condition ofmy fetal or embryonic tissue separate and apart from my body. I do not regard Political Informationto be scientifically true or accurate or even relevant to my medical decisions. The communication ofPolitical Information to me imposes an unwanted and substantial burden on my religious beliefs. My informed consent is based solely on information you provide which, in the exercise of yourindependent medical judgment, is materially relevant to my health (excluding the present or futurecondition of any fetal or embryonic tissue inside my body) and is scientifically true and accurate. Myinformed consent is not based on Political Information.

This letter constitutes my acknowledgment that you have offered Political Information to me. I rejectthat Political Information because it offends my sincerely held religious beliefs. Please attach thisletter to any forms you are required to keep regarding my informed consent.

The doctor-patient relationship is built on trust. I trust that you will honor my religious beliefs andkeep me fully and accurately informed of my health based on science, not politics. I further trustthat you will not deny me medical care because of any inconvenience my religious beliefs maycause to your ability to provide me with your best independent medical judgment.

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

In a saner time, the questions Ryan wants to raise are exactly the ones we should be debating. I think the answers would still come out against him, but Enlightenment reason has as only one of its themes the corrosive destruction of enchanted medievalisms. Isn’t it another theme of Enlightenment reason, the positive one, that we need deep concern for our policy choices, deep research about sociological impacts, and profound thought about the effects on political foundation?

In a world where an Indiana pizza parlor can be shut down—then receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations—for what was in essence not even a crime of wrong action but wrong thought, we have moved into a world of metonymy, where an argument is judged not by its argumentation but by its symbolic place.

You could trace all this through the sadly hilarious videoof Ryan’s having his microphone cut off on an MSNBC program this March. An even more recent spat shows the pattern, as well. On April 15, a not-bad profile of Ryan appeared in the Washington Post. The writer’s voice was mostly one of bemusement that someone not obviously insane could oppose same-sex marriage, but within the confines of that voice, the piece was respectful and interested. As schools are wont to do, his old high school, the Friends School of Baltimore, put on its Facebook page a link to this profile of one of its increasingly famous graduates—only to replace it quickly with a message from the headmaster groveling over this failure to grasp the true inwardness of the bigotry and evil manifest in his school’s former student.

The most ironic part may be this: Opposition to same-sex marriage is commonly caricatured as a religious prejudice, and against such prejudice stand the forces of reason, rational argument, and thoughtful debate. But on the ground, where Ryan has taken his stand, it’s far too often the supporters of same-sex marriage who are reacting religiously—symbolically and metonymically, in horror at the evil-mindedness of their opponents. And Ryan who has quixotically, naively, and old-fashionedly assumed that this is all a debate about public reason, rational choice, and political theory.

Excellent piece... read it all... but know what Mr. Bottums' bottum line is.

Marriage as we know it will soon be completely redefined and it'll have nothing to do with reason. It instead will have everything to do with emotion.